Chapter 7
I grabbed my phone.
“What bank account?”
Jessica answered quickly.
“Joint savings. Home equity. Anything linked to Ryan.”
Ryan looked confused.
“Why?”
“Because your mother wasn’t acting alone.”
My password worked.
The balance loaded.
I stared.
$12.43.
Yesterday there had been over $68,000.
“No.”
Ryan looked over my shoulder.
“What?”
“The savings account is empty.”
His expression collapsed.
“That’s impossible.”
“Apparently not.”
Jessica spoke through the phone.
“Check transactions.”
I opened them.
One transfer.
$68,420.
Recipient: D. Carter Holdings.
Diane.
Ryan swore.
“I never authorized that.”
“Neither did I.”
Jessica said, “There’s more.”
“What?”
“Diane has been receiving payments from Hayes Development for years.”
Ryan’s grip tightened around the phone.
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
“I thought the files were about an employee stealing.”
“I thought so too. Then I found her name.”
“How much?”
Jessica hesitated.
“Almost nine hundred thousand dollars over eight years.”
I felt dizzy.
Ryan leaned against the porch rail.
“Why would Hayes pay my mother?”
Jessica lowered her voice.
“William Hayes authorized the first payments.”
Ryan looked at the DNA test in his hand.
His biological father.
This was no longer just a family fight.
It was money.
Secrets.
Years of lies.
I looked at Ryan.
“Call the bank.”
He did.
The representative confirmed the transfer had been initiated using Ryan’s online credentials at 6:41 that morning.
Ryan had been on an airplane at 6:41.
But Diane knew enough about him to guess passwords.
Maybe more.
He requested a fraud investigation.
I called my bank separately.
Then the doorbell camera alerted me.
A vehicle had pulled into the driveway.
Not Diane.
A black SUV.
A man stepped out.
Late fifties.
Gray suit.
He carried a document folder.
Ryan frowned.
“I know him.”
“Who?”
“Charles Hayes.”
William’s younger brother.
The current CEO.
Charles walked toward us.
“Ryan.”
“You need to leave,” Ryan said.
Charles stopped.
“I think you’ll want to hear what I have to say.”
Jessica was still on speakerphone.
The second she heard his voice, she whispered, “Do not trust him.”
Charles heard her.
“Jessica. Of course.”
Ryan ended the call.
Charles looked at me.
“You must be Emily.”
“What do you want?”
“To prevent this family from making a catastrophic mistake.”
I almost smiled.
“Your timing is terrible.”
“I imagine it is.”
He held out the folder.
“This concerns Diane.”
Ryan didn’t take it.
“Why did your company pay her?”
Charles glanced toward the house.
“This isn’t a porch conversation.”
“It is today.”
Charles studied him.
Then he opened the folder.
“My brother had an affair with your mother for nearly fifteen years.”
Ryan’s face stayed blank.
“We know.”
Charles blinked.
“Then you found the DNA report.”
“Yes.”
“That simplifies one problem.”
“What problem?”
“William believed you were his only biological son.”
Ryan’s eyes narrowed.
“But he never publicly acknowledged you.”
“No.”
“He intended to.”
Charles removed a document.
“A will.”
Ryan didn’t move.
“William changed his estate plan six days before his death.”
I looked at Ryan.
Charles continued.
“He left controlling shares in Hayes Development to you.”
Ryan laughed once.
“That’s impossible.”
“It would have transferred when you turned thirty-five.”
Ryan was thirty-four.
His birthday was in three weeks.
My stomach tightened.
“And Diane knows,” I said.
Charles looked at me.
“Yes.”
Everything suddenly made sense.
The money.
The manipulation.
The custody plan.
Diane’s obsession with controlling Ryan.
Ryan whispered, “What happens when I turn thirty-five?”
“You become the largest individual shareholder.”
Charles paused.
“Unless you are declared legally incompetent, convicted of a felony involving financial misconduct, or dead.”
Silence.
My skin turned cold.
Ryan looked at me.
Then at the emptied account.
Someone had stolen money using his credentials.
Financial misconduct.
He understood it too.
Charles said quietly, “Your mother isn’t trying to steal your family.”
May you like
He looked directly at Ryan.
“She’s trying to steal your inheritance.”
